FreeCharge Wallet Makes It Easier To Pay Traffic Challan In Mumbai

Digital payments have become very popular in India in recent years. This comes as mobile technology has helped create secure connections between people and their money. The fact that many governmental organizations and sections have stuck with mobile payment technology has especially been a point to see as the government is aiming to get more people to actually use such payments.

The Mumbai Traffic Police is working alongside FreeCharge to support a brand new platform for collect traffic fines. This cash-free payment platform will allow the police to collect fine money from people through electronic transactions supported by FreeCharge.

This is the latest in the ongoing trend of cashless payment functions working for many organizations. This is designed to help with improving how money is collected while making it easier for people around India to get in touch with their money.

This is similar to the move Ola Money has made with utility providers in the area. These include providers that offer many electric and water services.

How the FreeCharge Challan Program Works

Around 500 e-challan devices have been introduced at many traffic check posts. When a person is caught violating a traffic rule, an e-challan will be reported on the vehicle identification number.

The data on the challan will be sent to a person’s mobile phone as well. The person who has the car can then review details on the fine and then take care of the payment for it through FreeCharge. This can all be done right off of the user’s phone.

Finding Ways To Collect Money

This is designed to help with finding those who constantly break traffic laws. This especially comes as the Mumbai traffic police have gotten about 22 lakh challans each year. The police expect to see an increase by 8 lakh.

FreeCharge is especially looking forward to this as the online payment process will make it easier for people to take care of the payments that they owe. The digital payment process is expected to make it all faster and easier for people to work with.

Expecting to Expand

The FreeCharge system used in Mumbai is expected to expand to other parts of India in the future. FreeCharge is hoping to expand it to Delhi, a city where about Rs. 140 crores of traffic fines are paid each year. Meanwhile, around Rs. 100 crores are paid in Mumbai in a typical year. Smaller places like Ahmedabad have also experienced rises in fines with about Rs. 17 crores in traffic fines each year.

The potential for FreeCharge to get a profit off of this project is very substantial. This could certainly make the process of covering fines for traffic violations a little easier to work with too.

Adding To a Trend

An important note about this practice is that it is on par with many other cashless transactions that have been supported by many other organizations and agencies around the country. Ola Money in particular recently started working with many utility service providers in the country to take care of utility bill payments through a mobile wallet system.

Ola also helps people by giving them support by swiping debit cards at Ola cabs through State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank services. This has been used in only a few cities so far and has some limits as to what people can take out at a given time but it has become a rather interesting point to see.

The National Highways Authority of India is also working with Paytm to support an automatic toll collection system. This works in that a FASTag from Paytm will be affixed onto one’s car so toll station payments can be made on the go without having to stop while on the road.

This will deduct money from a digital wallet as the toll for crossing is paid properly. This tag is applied onto a car windshield and is read with RFID technology. It costs Rs. 200 to get a tag and needs Rs. 100 in an account for it to work properly with recharges of up to Rs. 1 lakh available for commercial vehicles.

Many mobile wallet services are also expanding the functions they have to offer. Mobikwik has a new Lite version of its app that lets people get access to Mobikwik functions if they have slower or smaller devices to work. The app is not as detailed but it comes with all the key basic features so it should be easy to get more out of a program. A new facility has also opened from Mobikwik to help people get credit and debit card payments taken care of without having to download the app.

Finally, the Paytm PoS system that works on an app has helped with making cashless payments easy to handle. This lets merchants that don’t have card swipe machines take in credit and debit payments. To make this work, a user must enter one’s card into a smartphone held by the merchant. This is a cashless process that takes a bit of time to work but it helps with getting payments handled without having to add any notes.